The humanism of Albert Schweitzer - humanitarian and physician who worked in Gabon

Humanist, March-April, 1993 by Maxine Negri

There is no disputing the world's acclaim of Dr. Albert Schweitzer as one of the greatest humanitarians of the twentieth century.

Here was a man who in the 90 years of his productive life, had earned doctorates in the fields of philosophy, theology, music, and medicine, and was famous in each; who had almost single-handedly built and established a hospital for natives in the heart of equatorial Africa; who was awarded, in 1953, the Nobel Prize for Peace; who was recognized as an authority on the interpretation and playing of Johann Sebastian Bach's music; who wrote controversial books on the life of Jesus; and whose two, volume study, The Philosophy of Civilization, was honored as a monument to penetrating thought and lofty ideals.

Of him, Albert Einstein said: "There is in this sad world of ours, a great man whose work has become a symbol of light and hope to a despairing, fragmented society."

But the question remains: was Schweitzer a humanist with a capital H, as defined by organized humanism in America? Some authorities speaking for humanism have said "yes"; others say "no" - for, although humanitarianism is a significant part of the humanist world view, it is not the whole of it.

With some exceptions, most humanist organizations - whether defining humanism as a naturalistic philosophy or as a nontheistic religion - remain adamant in totally refuting the existence of all alleged supernatural phenomena. They view the concepts of good and evil, right and wrong, as human inventions based upon human experience and then interpreted and judged by the combined influences of human emotions and reasoning. Ethics, therefore, are not absolute and immutable but situational and open to change.

If Schweitzer could be asked today if he considered himself a humanist with a capital H, he would (if assenting) undoubtedly identify himself as a "Christian humanist" - thereby setting off bells of alarm in both dogmatic Christians and militant humanists.

For Christians, the problem begins with Schweitzer's concept of Christianity as set forth in his book. The Quest for the Historical Jesus. In his day, this book proved so shocking to traditional orthodoxy that the Paris Mission Society, despite its desperate need of a doctor to serve its missionaries in the jungles of Africa, refused Schweitzer's offer of help on the grounds that he was not a Christian.

And from an orthodox Christian perspective, the Paris Mission Society was justified, for Schweitzer - as a biblical scholar intent upon separating the historical Jesus from the legend later built up by the early church - not only denied the Bible's authenticity but rejected its accounts of Jesus' miracles as well, including his alleged immaculate conception and resurrection.

Similarly, when militant humanists have been confronted with Schweitzer's lifetime devotion to the love ethic of Jesus as exemplified in the Sermon on the Mount, or with his abiding affection and "inner need" for the "solemn quietude" of the church, or with his delight in standing before a congregation to preach his own interpretation of biblical texts, they have found themselves unable to equate such practices with the tenets of nontheistic humanism.

Yet, if humanists truly understood Schweitzer's thinking, it is they who would be in the stronger position to claim and defend him as one of their own. Like Spinoza, often called the "God-intoxicated philosopher" but whose synonym for God was nature, Schweitzer's use of such words as spirit, mysticism, Christianity, religion, and God was unconventional, and so it must be understood from his frame of reference before a knowledgeable judgment can be made. On the other hand, unlike Spinoza - who upon being excommunicated from the Jewish community of Amsterdam was content to go his way alone, divorced from Judaism - Schweitzer chose to stay within Christendom and attempt to illuminate and reform it by writing and preaching his own convictions and living by them.

To gain any comprehensive insight into the driving inner forces that would compel Schweitzer, at the age of 30, to renounce the cultural benefits and the physical and financial comforts of a fame already achieved in two careers, in order to plunge himself into eight years of future toil in the preparation of a third uncertain career, one must know something about his childhood and boyhood environment, which together with his genetic endowments would serve to mold his moral character, enhance his natural talents, and build in him the physical and mental fortitude that enabled him to accomplish the goals he set.

Albert Schweitzer was born on January 14, 1875, in upper Alsace, in the town of Keysenberg on the border between Germany and France. He was the second child of a family of three sisters and one younger brother.

His father, Louis Schweitzer, a gentle, kindly man with a talent for improvising on the piano, was by profession a Protestant minister. When Albert was six months old, Louis moved his family to Gunsbach, where he became the pastor of the only Protestant church in that largely Catholic but friendly community.